Wafer cleaning apparatus and method
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsJieh-Chau HUANG, Ying Ting Hsia, Ping-Jung Huang, Pei Yen Hsia, Bi-Ming Yen, Hung-Lung Hu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present disclosure relates to an apparatus for wafer cleaning. The apparatus includes an enclosure made of a noncombustible material, a wafer holder, a cleaning nozzle, at least one sensor, and an exhaust unit. The wafer holder can hold and heat a wafer. The cleaning nozzle can supply a flow of a cleaning fluid onto a surface of the wafer. The at least one sensor can detect attributes of the wafer. The exhaust unit can expel a vapor generated by the cleaning fluid in the enclosure. The exhaust unit can include a rinse nozzle to rinse the vapor passing through the exhaust unit with a mist.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- supplying, with a cleaning nozzle, a flow of a cleaning fluid onto a surface of a wafer in an enclosure;
- cleaning the wafer with the cleaning fluid;
- grounding the cleaning nozzle with a magnetic grounding clamp coupled to the cleaning nozzle and a grounding line connected to the cleaning nozzle;
- passing a vapor generated by the cleaning fluid in the enclosure through an exhaust unit;
- and
- rinsing the vapor passing through the exhaust unit with a liquid flow and a gas flow.
A method, comprising:
- supplying, with a cleaning nozzle, a flow of a cleaning fluid onto a surface of a wafer held by a wafer holder;
- cleaning the wafer with the cleaning fluid;
- grounding the cleaning nozzle with a magnetic grounding clamp coupled to the cleaning nozzle and a grounding line connected to the cleaning nozzle;
- expelling a vapor of the cleaning fluid through an exhaust unit;
- and
- rinsing, with a mist, the vapor expelled through the exhaust unit.
A method, comprising:
- supplying, with a cleaning nozzle, a flow of a cleaning fluid onto a surface of a wafer;
- grounding the cleaning nozzle with a magnetic grounding clamp coupled to the cleaning nozzle and a grounding line connected to the cleaning nozzle;
- cleaning the wafer with the cleaning fluid;
- expelling a vapor of the cleaning fluid through an exhaust unit;
- generating a mist by a rinse nozzle in the exhaust unit;
- and
- rinsing the vapor expelled through the exhaust unit with the mist.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.